Badlands merge into Midwest nice.
The departure from Rapid City at the end of June was a long, long day. In that day we drove for 10+ hours across South Dakota into Mineapolis. So why ‘Badlands’? There was always an assumption that the name was given by some settler long ago, or a terrible translation of the original indigenous name like so many other places (Seattle being the one closest to home). Turns out the name is the one thing the colonizers got right as the Lakota Sioux call the place “Make Sica” which translates to badlands. The area where the park is had long been used for ceremony including Ghost Dance (which were also deemed illegal by the U.S. government. So much for religious freedom for all) by the Lakota Sioux and as nomadic hunting grounds for 10,000 year prior. The land was promised to remain in the care of the the Ogala Sioux in the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie Treaty in 1868. However like every treaty the U.S. government made with indigenous peoples, it was broken. Authorized as Badlands National Monument on March 4, 1929, it was not established until January 25, 1939. Then in 1942 a large area of the Badlands/Pine Ridge Reservation was ‘leased’ and used as an aerial gunnery and bomb range for 34 years. Badlands was redesignated a national park on November 10, 1978. The Southern area in managed in conjunction with the Lakota Sioux, the Northern area (where all the tourists go and money comes in) is solely operated by the National Parks Department. The Pine Ridge reservation continues to be severely economically depressed, but the people who are there continue to be resilient.
Seeing the badlands has now been crossed off the bucket list, the site will stay in my eyes for quite some time and the knowledge of wrongs done and effort to re-educate will continue.
In Minneapolis we were welcomed, and slightly startled, by Rob House. Startled because we were trying to find the back entrance to the house, in the dark, around 11pm, after being on the road for nearly 11 hours. Rene went to college with Rob at St. Olaf back in the day and were in ceramics classes together. Rob still gets on the wheel in addition to being a dad to two teenage boys. In the coming week Rene was spent time reconnecting with good friends he had not seen in 20 years, and spending plenty of time on the grill.
Rob is a musician as well and took us on a tour of the studio space he and fellow bandmates rent. They have not been able to practice for about a year due to the protests that took place as a result of the killing of George Floyd, which added more vigor to the BLM demonstrations against police corruption and discrimination among other things. After hearing and watching the protests, it was harrowing to walk the streets, see the structures and the burned out police station. There’s a long way to go, but at least now everyone can agree, there’s an elephant in the room.
